Post-Traumatic Public Theology

320 Pages·2016·3.457 MB·English

by  Stephanie N. Arel, Shelly Rambo (eds.)

POST-TRAUMATIC
PUBLIC THEOLOGY
Edited by
Stephanie N. Arel
and Shelly Rambo
Post-Traumatic Public Theology
Stephanie N. Arel • S helly R ambo
Editors
Post-Traumatic Public
Theology
Editors
Stephanie N. Arel Shelly Rambo
Boston University Boston University
Stamford, Connecticut, USA Boston, USA
ISBN 978-3-319-40659-6 ISBN 978-3-319-40660-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-40660-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955189
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A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
This volume was inspired by the tenacity and the indefatigable energy
of the fi rst responders to the events of April 15, 2013, in Boston,
Massachusetts. The Boston Marathon bombing affected the Boston com-
munity deeply and motivated us to gather a group of theologians together
to address the public impact of theology on the trauma and suffering hap-
pening before our eyes. A powerful discussion ensued. It blossomed into
the essays contained in this volume. The text would not have come to frui-
tion without the steadfast support of the Center for Practical Theology at
Boston University School of Theology. Miracle Ryder provided substan-
tial support of another kind, assisting us in logistics, project management,
and organization of the initial meeting and so enabled this rewarding col-
laboration. Several Boston University graduate students devoted signifi -
cant time and energy to the project at different stages. We thank Kathryn
House, Ashley Anderson, and Kaitlyn Martin. Burke Gerstenshlager had
an initial vision for this work, and his check-ins were instrumental in
bringing us to Palgrave. Phil Getz and Alexis Nelson provided generous
support throughout the process.
v
C
ONTENTS
1 Introduction 1
Shelly R ambo
2 War Bodies: Remembering Bodies in a Time of War 2 3
Willie J ames J ennings
3 Trauma, Reality, and Eucharist 3 7
Bryan S tone
4 Running the Gauntlet of Humiliation:
Disablement in/as Trauma 6 3
Sharon V . B etcher
5 The Trauma of Racism and the Distorted
White Imagination 89
Dan H auge
6 “Serving the Spirit of Goodness”: Spiritual
and Theological Responses to Affl iction in the 
Writings of St. John of the Cross and Louise Erdrich 115
Wendy F arley
vii
viii CONTENTS
7 Elegy for a Lost World 135
Mark W allace
8 The Virtual Body of Christ and the Embrace
of those Traumatized by Cancer 1 55
Deanna A . T hompson
9 Examining Restorative Justice: Theology, Traumatic
Narratives, and Affective Responsibility 173
Stephanie N . A rel
10 9/11 Changed Things: The (Post-T raumatic)
Religious Studies Classroom 1 93
Katherine J aniec J ones
11 “La Mano Zurda with a Heart in Its Palm”:
Mystical Activism as a Response to the Trauma
of Immigration Detention 2 17
Susanna S nyder
12 Taking Matter S eriously : Material Theopoetics in
the Aftermath of Communal Violence 2 41
Michelle A . W alsh
13 Traumas of Belonging: Imagined Communities
of Nation, Religion, and Gender in Modernity 267
S usan A braham
Afterword 291
Appendix: Images 301
Index 303
L F
IST OF IGURES
Fig. 12.1 The Louis D. Brown Peace Institute’s Traveling Memorial
Button Project, bottom reads: “When Hands Reach Out In
Friendship, Hearts Are Touched With Joy” 244
Fig. 12.2 A Peace Institute Survivor’s Sandplay Example . Sandplay
performed by a participant following a visit with her son’s
murderer in jail. In the picture, the participant indicates
she is refl ecting on self through the fi gure placed by the mirror.
She also indicates she is refl ecting on reconciling the perpetrator’s
innocent child self with the horrifi c action in which he had later
engaged through her placement of other fi gures in the tray.
Struggles with experiences of anger, “evil” or “othering,”
suffering, and trauma in tension with the survivor’s belief in the
Peace Institute’s peace principles of forgiveness and justice are
expressed in material theopoetic form through her play with
material objects in the sand and the metaphoric excess of poetic
and affective meaning suggested 247
ix
C
ONTRIBUTORS
Susan   Abraham is Associate Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola
Marymount in Los Angeles. Her teaching and research explores postcolo-
nial and feminist theological practices invigorating contemporary com-
munities of faith. She is the author of I dentity, Ethics, and Nonviolence in
Postcolonial Theory: A Rahnerian Theological Assessment (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007) and co-editor of S houlder to Shoulder: Frontiers in
Catholic Feminist Theology (Fortress, 2009). Her publications and presen-
tations weave practical theological insights from the experience of working
as a youth minister for the Diocese of Mumbai, India, with theoretical
perspectives from postcolonial theory, cultural studies, and feminist the-
ory. Ongoing research projects include issues in feminist theological edu-
cation and formation, interfaith and interreligious peace initiatives,
theology and political theory, religion and media, global Christianities,
and Christianity between colonialism and postcolonialism.
Stephanie   N.   Arel is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for
the Bio-cultural Study of Religion at Boston University. She holds a cer-
tifi cate in trauma modalities for clinical treatment from the New York
Institute for the Psychotherapies, and recently served as a fellow on the
Intercontinental Academia on Human Dignity, hosted jointly by Hebrew
University and Bielefeld University. She is the author of S hame, Affect
Theory, and Christian Formation also published with Palgrave in 2016.
Sharon   V .   B etcher i s an independent scholar, writer, crip philosopher and
farmer living on Whidbey Island, Washington. She is the author of two aca-
demic manuscripts, S pirit and the Politics of Disablement (Fortress, 2007)
xi
xii CONTRIBUTORS
and S pirit and the Obligation of Social Flesh: A Secular Theology for Global
Cities (Fordham, 2014) as well as theological essays within multiple anthol-
ogies worked through the critical lenses of ecological, postcolonial and dis-
ability studies theory. She is a regular columnist for W hidbey Life Magazine .
Wendy   Farley received her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 1988.
After 28 years of teaching at Emory University, she will direct Spirituality
Studies at San Francisco Theological Seminary. Her teaching and research
interests include women theologians, religious dialogue, classical texts,
contemporary ethical issues, and contemplative practices. Her most recent
books include T he Thirst of God: Contemplating God’s Love with Three
Women Mystics (2015) and G athering Those Driven Away: A Theology of
Incarnation (2011).
Daniel   Hauge is currently a doctoral student in Practical Theology at
Boston University School of Theology. He has received an STM from
Boston University and an MDiv from Regent College. His research takes
an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing whiteness in the church and
society, integrating critical whiteness studies, developmental and social
psychology, and liberation theology
Willie   James   Jennings is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and
Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. His recent book, T he Christian
Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, is now a standard text
being read in seminaries, colleges, and university courses in a variety of
disciplines. He recently completed a commentary on the book of Acts. He
is currently at work on a book about creation.
Katherine   Janiec   Jones (Trina) is the Associate Provost for Curriculum
and Co-Curriculum and an Associate Professor of Religion at Wofford
College in Spartanburg, S.C. Prior to joining Wofford’s faculty in 2006,
she served as Assistant Professor of religion for four years at Transylvania
University in Kentucky. Her current research interests revolve around
cross-cultural philosophy of religion and fostering interreligious compe-
tency and engagement within a liberal arts context. She is currently work-
ing on a book project focusing on the role of myth, ritual, and symbol in
the public performance of femininity.
Shelly   Rambo is Associate Professor of Theology at Boston University
School of Theology. Her research and teaching interests focus on religious
responses to suffering, trauma, and violence. She is author of S pirit and
Trauma: A Theology of Remaining (Westminster John Knox, 2010) and